October 30, 2011

As I passed my cheering section on the way to the finish line I asked the girls if they wanted to run the last part with me. It was only about 50 yards, but they loved it. We all crossed the finish line together.

Once Hayden finished her race they all went over to the bouncy blow up things. It was a great time killer as they wait for me.

Daddy "ran" the whole race with Hayden. It was three laps in the parking lot of First Baptist. Layne joined it at the very end....but was distracted by a dog!

October 29, 2011

This morning Hayden had her first race! It was a 1 mile fun run at First Baptist Church. The registration was only $10 and a pair of gently used shoes! So, I signed her up for the fun run and I signed myself up for the 10K. She's been training for it at Bootcamp each week.

Last night I made a sign for Layne to hold as she cheered on her sister this morning. This side has little polka dots on each letter so Layne said "this is the spicy side!"

Hayden was just beside herself with excitement this morning!

Unfortunately, my race started at 9:00 and her started at 9:15. So, I did not get to see her run her three laps in the parking lot. Daddy was with her the whole time and Pappy and Layner were right there cheering her on. She says that she wants to continue running races!! FUN STUFF!!

October 27, 2011

Miss Ella just brightens my mornings....especially this week! Jeremy has been out of town all week doing crawlspace work. Her smile is so contagious and that laugh is sweet music. I just adore this sweet baby! Thanks for trusting me to watch her David and Lisa!!

Crazy Hair Day at Peachtree and Arktoberfest at First Baptist. Trust me, Hayden's hair is not so tight that her eyes are half closed.....

Sweet little Ladybug Layne all dressed up for "Arktoberfest" today. Ready to get some candy and play some games!

October 26, 2011

So, I have been really wanting to focus on scripture memorization for a while now. I know some verses, but I would really like to have a lot more of God's Word on the tip of my tongue and ready to go. I also know a lot of scripture in my own words, but I would really like to know it in God's words and where exactly it's located! I am excited to say that I found a REALLY cool app on my phone called Fighter Verses. Here is what's so cool about this app......

The Fighter Verses Android® application includes the following features:

Over 520 verses included – two complete five-year collections.

Add ANY VERSE you want using “My Verses” and optionally define topics for them to do topical memory. Adding verses requires NO typing!

Four Bible translations – ESV, NIV, KJV, LBLA (Spanish)

Fill in the blank QUIZ

SONGS to help you learn the verses through music and singing (ESV only)

WIDGET to display verses on the home screen so the verse is front of you every time you use your phone / tablet.

BLOG commentary from fighterverses.com each week that is directly related to the current verse in the schedule.

Spoken verse AUDIO (ESV only)

TOPICAL index for topical memory

Read whole CHAPTER / context

Configurable SCHEDULE for weekly memorization

REMINDERS to memorize daily or weekly

SOCIAL integration & sharing (Facebook, Twitter, SMS, Email)

This application works well offline as well. All verses are available for OFFLINE viewing.

October 24, 2011

Well, Sunday was the big day. It seemed like nothing went according to "my" plan with this half marathon. It started with the training program-just didn't go as well as the other two, then it was the sickness and the hurting arches, and it finally ended with me finding out the the race was on Sunday and Jeremy was teaching that day!! I was very very close to just not even running it until my sweet friend Lisa volunteered to drive out to Athens with me and cheer me on....what a great friend! Everything went pretty smoothly that morning-except for the fact that we got there like 10 minutes before it started so I didn't get to use the bathroom (no wetting my spandex issues along the 13.1 miles though!) and they were out of safety pins for my bib. Fortunately, there were port-a-pottys at every water station (I have never seen that before!). What a blessing!! I made two stops. Pretty sure that the second stop was just because I saw a potty so I felt the urge to pee. I didn't think about the fact that it probably added 4 minutes total to my finish time. Oh well, when you gotta go ya gotta go!! This first picture was taken at about the halfway mark-notice my race bib tucked into my iPod arm band. It was so great to see Lisa and Ella. Yeah, I didn't mention that Lisa even brought Ella in the cold to cheer me on. That is one dedicated friend! The temperature started out in the high 30's and ended up in the low 40's by the end of the race. I was feeling pretty good at this point.....then came the fatigue and HUGE hills. The whole race was just up and down (felt like mainly up) up and down, hills, hills, hills.

A few weeks ago I was talking with Jeremy about one of my insecurities....my weight. I have a chart on our bathroom mirror and I weigh myself every Sunday morning and chart my progress....or lack there of. Well, after our talk I went running. When I came back I noticed that he had written "I can do all things through Christ who give me strength" on the mirror in a dry erase marker. That verse stayed with me all the way throughout the race. The fact that Jeremy was teaching that morning was also a HUGE motivator. I just kept thinking, "I have to finish, I have to finish, I can't walk, I can't walk, I have to run so that I can hear Jeremy at the 11am service!!"

We made it!

My official time was 2 hours 17 minutes which is actually my worst 1/2 marathon time, but I had two bathroom stops and it was the hilliest 1/2 marathon course that I have done so far. I'm trying not to be so hard on myself but it's hard when you train for so long and then get your worst time. I know that I shouldn't compare times since all three courses were totally different from one another and so were the weather conditions. I know, I know, I know. Bottom line is that I trained, ran, and finished....and most importantly I got to hear God speak through Jeremy later that morning!! What a blessing!

This week is Spirit Week at Peachtree Academy. Today was tacky day!! Here's how the cutie went to school. She can make tacky look cute!
On Saturday we went to Abby's birthday party. Fun princess party that included a bouncy and face painting!!
And a pinata!

October 19, 2011

The girls went out shopping with Grandma and Pap during Hayden's birthday weekend. The both picked up their very own umbrellas! Here's miss Hayden modeling hers. Check out the shirt that Aunt Jamie made for her.....adorable!

Miss Layne got a Tinker Bell umbrella. It rained today so they were able to use them when we dropped Layne off at school!

This is how I found Layne sleeping one day last week. She had fallen off of the bed and just continued sleeping right on the floor. Hayden fell out of bed this morning too, but she didn't continue with her slumber! It woke her right up.

Layne is an animal person FOR SURE. She can not get enough of our new addition. She's not a big fan of the needle sharp puppy teeth, but she deals with it because she loves to play with Roxy so much.

Bath time for the pup. Layne really wanted to comfort Roxy during bath time because she wasn't too excited about the whole experience.

On Monday Layne, Ella, and I headed into Hayden's school so that we could take a birthday treat into her class. We were shocked when Hayden's teacher invited Layne to eat lunch with her big sis! I don't think that Layne liked it, but she really wanted to eat at big school with the big kids and her big sis.

We brought in a cookie cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday to the birthday girl!

October 17, 2011

So, all Layne wants to be for Halloween is Strawberry Shortcake. Luckily, I found a Strawberry Shortcake dress at a consignment sale! All we needed was the hair....well, we found that today. It's actually a Little Mermaid wig but it will totally work. She is IN LOVE with the hair. She wanted to wear it into Wal-Mart-I let her. I figured that you can find way weirder things in Wal-Mart than a 3 year old with a red wig on! She even wanted to wear it to bed tonight-I had to draw the line somewhere!!
Hayden really wants to be a witch. So, here's the least scary nicest looking witch costume that we could find. Of course it had to have hair because sissy's costume has hair!! Cuties!!!!

October 16, 2011

Here is a picture of Layne holding the American flag so that Hayden can say the Pledge of Allegiance.
Here is Layne modeling her new pirate earrings. Funny story about that....so we got this adorable invitation to a pirate party for one of Haydens friends. We were all so excited about it....especially jeremy (that was a joke). So Jerm had to drop the girls off on Saturday because I had something else to do. As he pulled in the driveway he noticed that there were no balloons on the mailbox, no kids or parents running around or entering the house. Things just didn't feel right. He soon realized why things "didn't feel right". The party was NOT Saturday, it was Friday! So, the girls missed the party but they did get to stay and play with Oakleigh for a little bit. They were able to give Oakleigh her present and then even got cupcakes and treat bags! Jeremy's text to me on Saturday read " Party was yesterday. Thanks for that." These pirate earrings were in the treat bags. Our little gypsy girl :)

October 8, 2011

Pizza cake for the adults (caramel cake) and treat bags for the kiddos. Cupcakes are just extras.

The aprons are all ready to go. Once the girls arrived they got to pick their apron and put it on so we'd be ready to get baking!

This morning Grandma, Pap, and the girls headed to Party City for the balloons and to a gas station for ice.....this is what they came home with too! Check out Hayden's cupcake slippers! TJ Maxx.....love it!

Birthday balloons so that Hayden's friends would know where to go!

Layner getting ready for sissy's party!

Our early arrivers hanging out on the deck before the baking began. Morgan, Hartley, Hayden, and Kendall.

Layner had to get in the picture!

First project was making their own pizzas for lunch. They did such a great job spreading the sauce, cheese, and pepperoni on their own pizzas. Then it was off to the oven!

Next it was time to make their very own recipe book. Since none of them can write recipes down I told them that they could use it to draw pictures of some of their favorite foods.

Lots of fun, it kind of made me miss being in the classroom just a tiny little bit.

By the time they were done making their recipe books the pizzas were done and cooled!

Then it was time for the fun stuff.....cake decorating!

Lots of colors of icing!

Tons of different kinds of sprinkles and toppings!

Kendall's masterpiece!

Hartley's masterpiece

Morgan's masterpiece

Layne's masterpiece

Abby's masterpiece

Hayden's masterpiece

Oakliegh's masterpiece

Next it was time for cupcakes and ice cream!

We couldn't find a match or lighter, so we just pretended that the candle was lit!!!

Present time!

Modeling the Steeler jersey that Pap and Grandma got her and the Steeler tutu that Julie made her!! She is set for Sunday game days!!

I had an absolute blast at Hayden's party today, not sure about the girls but I had fun!